An active gas pedal or accelerator pedal can give the driver different feedback by means of haptic signals. The active accelerator pedal is fitted with a suitable actuator for this purpose. The control of the actuator is carried out by a local actuator controller in the form of electronics that can also be integrated within the accelerator pedal and that can be triggered by means of signals via a CAN bus for example.
For safety reasons the actuator can be mechanically coupled to the accelerator pedal so that only forces in the pedal return direction can be transferred from the actuator to the accelerator pedal. Mechanical solutions with which the pedal can move when decoupled from the actuator also require the pedal position in addition to the actuator position for position regulation of the actuator.
The pedal angle, i.e. an actual position of an accelerator pedal lever, can be detected with two redundant sensor elements and transmitted to the ECU, i.e. to a central engine controller. In general, very high accuracy requirements, for example regarding the measurement value, the synchronization and the relationship of the two signals relative to each other, are placed on the two redundant signals of the two sensor elements during this for analysis and diagnostic purposes.
Therefore it is a disadvantage to “tap” at least one of the signal lines leading to the central engine controller, each of which is connected to a sensor element, to transmit the signal to the actuator controller and to analyze it there, because the actuator controller generally operates with a different voltage supply and with a different ground connection and signal offsets can occur, for example because of a ground offset, and hence synchronization requirements are no longer fulfilled.
Therefore, a second pedal position sensor is normally used for the actuator, which provides the signals for the actuator controller in order to avoid the above mentioned disadvantages.